Murder conviction of Chicago man who spent 12 years behind bars overturned because key eyewitness was legally blind

roastedDeflator@kbin.social to Not The Onion@lemmy.world – 273 points – Murder conviction of Chicago man who spent 12 years behind bars overturned because key eyewitness was legally blind
nbcnews.com
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So what does it means "Legally blind" if he can drive and read? What's the threshold to be considered legally blind?

Found this definition;

In the United States, legal blindness means your central visual acuity—the part of your vision that allows you to see straight ahead—is 20/200 or less in your better eye when wearing corrective lenses. With 20/200 vision, you can see at 20 feet what a person with 20/20 vision sees at 200 feet. Or, your 20-degree field allows for seeing only right in front of you.

You can be legally blind with tunnel vision, i.e. you can see directly ahead, but nothing out of the corner of your eye.

That sound dangerous when doing something other than reading. Even walking could be a problem without having peripheral view.

He has lost most of his eyesight in one eye due to a childhood illness. He does have a driver's license, but it says "legally blind" on it. Legally blind just means you can still see, just not that clearly. It can include all kinds of other eye conditions that don't make you actually blind.

Ok, I understand. Thank you for your explanation. I live in Europe and I'm not sure we have something like that here. I think that if you can't see very well you can either drive with glasses or be denied to drive.